Brave New Sales

Sell With Your Head High: Differentiation

Stop Pitching Away Your Assets For Free

I just saw this post, To Hell With The Sell by Blair Enns via my great friend Ken Jacobs who helps PR agencies grow business and develop staff.

This post resonated with me because, I have to admit, it aligns with some of the material in my book, Sales Pitches That Snap, Crackle 'n Pop, particularly the second, third and fourth points:

• We will replace presentations with conversations;
• We will diagnose before we prescribe; and
  
• We will re-think what it means to sell.

That last point resonates because it reinforces a timeless adage that great salespeople do not push their product, but instead facilitate the buying process; they help the buyer buy.

 

We Shall Hold Our Heads High

Following that, Blair moves into high gear with respect to communications and ad agencies.

The overriding theme is that if you don't differentiate, and if you don't proactively lead conversations, you will find yourself playing "against" your prospects as foes... and on a slanted playing field, at that.

While Blair and I define pitches a little differently, our approach is aligned.  In my book I actually say that the paradox of a pitch is that it should not feel pitchy. In early-stage opportunities, whenever you can move away from your presentation toward a customer-focused conversation, you should "ditch the pitch!"

So definitions aside (and Blair does use "pitch" in many other blog posts), I highly endorse Blair's book, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto.

As salespeople in the B2B world, we really should hold our heads high. We should consider ourselves experts in a field where we can best help clients if we take control of the selling process, and don't chase low-probability and low-profitability RFP's.

Awesome stuff, Blair. You're probably not winning all your pitches, but I bet you're winning a healthy portion of those that are more profitable to operate and more exciting to work on!

 

Photo/Illustration of Blair Enns from his website, link above.

 

Sales & The Power of Apology

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

It was so early in my career that the fax machine was still the business medium of choice.

We had pitched a potential partner on an exciting marketing platform, and they liked it. We were now negotiating deliverables and returns.

A cantankerous lawyer on the other side of the table fired a shot at our team. "You guys were supposed to fax us the payment schedule. We never received it!"

A thousand negative impulses went through my body and mind in a split second. I had drafted the fax for my boss, but due to travel schedules, a stressed-out personal assistant and plain ol' high work loads, it never got sent.

 

Would this turn into finger-pointing?

Would this slow us down?

Before the next split second could start, my boss shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sorry. That was my fault. I saw it on my desk but didn't act on it. Let me call the office right now and see if my assistant can dig it out."

You could almost hear the pressure in the room drop.

My young head was telling me to shut up and play it safe, but my gut told me otherwise. So I leaned forward.

"I have it," I said. "Sorry, I should have followed-up to see if it got sent."

My boss smiled and said, "No, no. You left it with me and I dropped the ball. Shit happens." 

There were chuckles around the room as everyone focused on the payment schedule that I was passing out.

 

The Future Is More Important Than The Past

It wasn't about the payment schedule, really. It was about everyone moving forward, not staying stuck in the proverbial shit that had happened.

If we hadn't apologized, if we would have made up some stupid excuse, the mud would most likely have risen above everybody's knees and soon covered the meeting room table.

Our prospects would have been looking at us as though we were either incompetent, unreliable or both. Instead we seemingly formed a bond with them, that we're all imperfectly human, and little shit happens every day. Onward and upward.

 

Easy, right?

Indeed, to some.

But to many, sorry seems to be the hardest word, thank you, Elton John.

"Sorry" shouldn't be the hardest word. It should be one of the easiest words, because you win when you use it genuinely.

"Sorry" doesn't mean "I'm wrong, you're right." It doesn't mean "I should be penalized, you should win the point." If you're stuck in that mindset, then you'll aplogize too infrequently, especially in business, and especially in front of prospective customers.

You can tailor "Sorry" to mean what you want it to mean, because the spirit and tone in which you say it counts, too.

"Oops. Too bad this has happened. I'm BIG enough to admit I had a role in it; I'm excellent enough to focus on accomplishing something big here; Let's move on."

 

A Little Competitive Advantage Doesn't Hurt Either

And here's what I really (and a bit selfishly) love about apology: It often puts you in a stronger position.

When you deflect or over-explain, the tension usually rises in the room. Defenses go up. Bonds are broken. Trust is lost, and if you'e the seller, you're the loser.

When you apologize, tension usually drops. Defenses go down. Bonds are built. Trust is gained, and you're the winner.

Apologize quickly, and others not only let you off the hook, they often give you the benefit of the next doubt.

The Sooner The Easier

The sooner you apologize, the easier it is to do so. It's that simple.

Think of any situation in your professional or personal life when it really was incumbent upon you to apologize, but you delayed. I'll bet you my last buck that it would have been easier to do so shortly after the incident, or even immediately.

All that negative energy is a drain on your karma, and damaging to your relationship.

The sooner you say, "Oops, sorry," the less collateral damage is done. Not only will you move on sooner, you will leave less wreckage in your wake. You'll have good karma.

Go easy on yourself. Be secure in your imperfections.

Sure, customers want to deal with competent people, but they also want to deal with secure people. If you never admit to even the smallest mistakes, they will admit them for you.

If you apologize and move on, they'll admire you, like you and trust you more. You'll experience less pain in your sales cycle, and probably more sales, to boot.

If you don't believe me, well, I'm happy to leave it and move on, sorry.

Now where were we?

 

Photo by butupa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25792994@N04/

 

"Offers That Wow!" Guest Post, Ann Soderblom

I'm delighted to have my good friend and fellow entrepreneur Ann Soderblom of Soderblom Design guest posting in Brave New Sales this week.

In her recent newsletter, Ann wrote about getting to know your customer target group and more specifically what they really like and want. If you have done all of that research it is time to put it into practice. 

Offers That Wow!

It is time to create an offer that will make 100% sense to your customer. So how can we do that? Well, by using the data you already collected and by considering something as fundamental as human nature.

Interested? Let's get started!

The structure of your (written) offer could have the following parts: 

1. Introduction 

2. Identified problem

3. Solution 

4. Call for action

5. Testimonials

When writing the offer consider the following points:

1. Does it say "we" and "us" all the time or "you" and "yours", only focus on the one person who is reading the offer: you.

2. Use the exact same terminology as you heard in your interviews and research with prospects. The language you use is not necessarily the same as of your customers.

3. Formulate the problem you know that they are experiencing (and that your business will help to solve), and add a little extra salt. Maybe even touching on some underlaying frustrations that you know this problem is really about.

4. Is your product or service something that solves an urgent and important problem? Make it urgent by talking to the underlaying desiree. E.g. more money, freedom, happiness etc. Always clearly state the benefits of your offer.

5. When offering your products and/or services, be very specific about what it really includes. E.g. 10 hours of make up consultation, 1 make up box from L'oreal etc. People normally value things more that are specific and can be measured.

6. It may sound like a worn-out concept but Free is wonderful. Make a package and include something for free, make sure to specifically note the value of what your customer is getting. E.g. 1 Free make up box from L'oreal (Value 100 USD).

7. Read through your offer and ask yourself if it talks to the prospect in a respectful and maybe even in a flattering way?

8. Quantify it. If you can show a specific number of how your product or service helps your prospect, add it! E.g. Increase your conversion rate of paying customers up to 70%. Do this carefully and only based on your real track record. You could even add how you got to this number. "Our last 10 customers in 2011 increased the conversion rate of paying customers with 70% from January to March."

9. Make the offer time limited. E.g. offer available until May 10, 2012.

10. Address all the concerns and remove all obstacles. If you have done your homework of actually talking to people (taking them for coffee) you should have a pretty good idea of common concerns and doubts people have. Use the exact same wording as your prospects in their interviews and answer them. E.g. "A personal trainer might feel like a very posh and costly thing to have but compare that to the medical costs of being ill later in your life due to poor health." 

11. Everybody wants to feel important. Can you send your offer to an exclusive group? a VIP membership group?

12. Call to action. Make it extremely easy to say yes! Don't do this: "Send us an email with the answers to the following questions xxx, then register for xxx on the xx page. We will then get back to you with xxx, and" blah blah… Don't ask more than one question at this point. Do like this: Interested? register here: (email form). You can also create a simple email link with a pre-written subject line and message. 

13. There is something magical about a "Ps." - section right after the end of your offer. For some reason we tend to like a little extra info, right after the end. This could be a good place to have your Free product or service. E.g. answer already today and we'll send you a Free t-shirt.

14. Testimonials. The prospect has just read your offer and it makes a lot of sense, it sounds great actually BUT.."how will I know that this is really going to work for me?" 

By asking your customers to give you testimonials you show the following things: 1. That your company really exists 2. That some people have actually experienced this 3. That you actually have a successful business and much more. Testimonials means trust, your prospects also need to know that this is not fake: write the name of the person, maybe even with an image, professional title and city where he or she lives. If you want to really create a mind blowing testimonial, combine this with point no. 8.

Remember to use as many of these techniques in your offer as possible. Always in a smart way, your prospects are not stupid and nothing is so un-attractive as a too direct hard-sell. Make the points from this list subtle but still there, in a classy and thought-through way.

Jack's note:  If you want to see Ann's services, check out: Soderblom Design

Thanks Ann!